“It bakes in and begs the question that climate change is similar to other EA causes—but it is not through the ITN framework that EAs use.”
I specifically tried to bracket the question of cause importance for a few reasons. I don’t think I have any particular expertise or insight on how to value animal suffering. My core point about the similarity in the potential for impact via personal consumption choices in both domains is analytically distinct from the importance of the cause areas. And I didn’t want agreement or disagreement with my post to hinge on readers own views about the relative importance of the two causes.
“It lampshades this lack of argument by mentioning neglectedness, and then appealing to uncertainty, but that’s not nearly enough treatment for this critical claim.”
I emphasized neglectedness this (though I did also briefly discuss importance and tractability, because lack of neglectedness is typically the feature of climate change mitigation that EAs rely most heavily on in deprioritizing climate change relative to other cause areas. In light of that, I think it’s important to note that (a) existing investments in climate change mitigation mostly do not come in the form of personal consumption decisions; and (b) there is little reason to expect diminishing marginal returns to more people taking some steps to minimize their carbon footprints (that is, on the extensive margin; on the intensive margin, or individual people making further investments in personal consumption decarbonization, decreasing marginal returns are to be expected).
“It bakes in and begs the question that climate change is similar to other EA causes—but it is not through the ITN framework that EAs use.”
I specifically tried to bracket the question of cause importance for a few reasons. I don’t think I have any particular expertise or insight on how to value animal suffering. My core point about the similarity in the potential for impact via personal consumption choices in both domains is analytically distinct from the importance of the cause areas. And I didn’t want agreement or disagreement with my post to hinge on readers own views about the relative importance of the two causes.
“It lampshades this lack of argument by mentioning neglectedness, and then appealing to uncertainty, but that’s not nearly enough treatment for this critical claim.”
I emphasized neglectedness this (though I did also briefly discuss importance and tractability, because lack of neglectedness is typically the feature of climate change mitigation that EAs rely most heavily on in deprioritizing climate change relative to other cause areas. In light of that, I think it’s important to note that (a) existing investments in climate change mitigation mostly do not come in the form of personal consumption decisions; and (b) there is little reason to expect diminishing marginal returns to more people taking some steps to minimize their carbon footprints (that is, on the extensive margin; on the intensive margin, or individual people making further investments in personal consumption decarbonization, decreasing marginal returns are to be expected).